Harnessing INformation for Development

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Overview
Geo-information technologies enable the collection and processing of land-related data efficiently, rapidly, and cost-effectively - using global positioning systems, computer mapping, remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS) - making it possible to relate economic and development decisions to specific locations or markets.

In the next three years, ECA will establish a facility that will offer member States easy access to up-to-date tools, techniques and global data resources. ECA will provide the gateway software that will link to nodes in African countries where they can make their records accessible. ECA will be organizing a series of hands-on training workshops in five sub-regional locations to promote more country-specific systems, hosted by member States themselves, or by ECA on their behalf.

ECA will also increase its work on national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) - which is the technology, policies, criteria, standards and people necessary to promote geospatial data sharing; integrating that infrastructure and geo-information policy into NICI plans; and fostering public participation in geo-information management. The US-based ESRI company and the International Steering Committee on the Global Map (ISCGM) are ECA ' s partners in developing NSDIs and providing grants to countries doing so.

Other ongoing involvement includes the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS) in Nigeria and the Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Nairobi , whereby ECA advises on course curriculums, technical services offered to member States, and on management issues. ECA supported workshops during the bi-annual conferences of African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) in October 2004. Support will be provided to AfricaGIS in 2005.

Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) Africa Preparatory Meeting is scheduled to take place from 8 to 10 August 2011 at the UNCC, UNECA, Addis Ababa. [more..]

::GeoInfo News

	ECA Director awarded during Geospatial World Forum ECA Press Release No. 55/2012 Amsterdam, 25 April 2012 (ECA) - On the occasion of Geospatial World Forum, Geospatial World Magazine has recognized and honoured outstanding Programmes, Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Organisations, and Academic Institutions, who have made significant contribution towards development of geographic information science, technology, products, applications, capacity development and in turn helped towards the growth of the geospatial industry as well as making geographic information a public commodity.
	Africa Preparatory Meeting Global Geospatial Information Management concludes with the Adoption of the Addis Ababa declaration ECA Press Release No. 107/2011 Addis Ababa, 10 August 2011 (ECA) - The African preparatory meeting on the Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) closed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday 10 August with the adoption of the Addis Ababa declaration on geospatial information management in Africa. The three-day meeting recommended that African countries, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission, should finalise and implement the African Action Plan on Geospatial Information Management. :: Closing Remark by Jennifer Kargbo, Deputy Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Africa
	Africa Preparatory Meeting for Global Geospatial Information Management opens in Addis Ababa ECA Press Release No. 105/2011 Addis Ababa, 08 August 2011 (ECA) - The African Regional Preparatory meeting of the Global Geospatial Management Initiative opened today at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The three-day meeting – being attended by experts from African countries and from international organizations – will assess the key challenges, opportunities and constraints relating to geospatial information management in Africa; develop a common vision, approach and contribution for the Africa region; and define an African broad plan of action for the initiative future activities.
	The Global Geospatial Initiative comes to Africa ECA Press Release No. 104/2011 Addis Ababa, 05 August 2011 (ECA) - Given the scale of cross-border global development challenges, ranging from humanitarian, energy, climate, environmental and food security, geospatial technology is enabling critical location-based information (geospatial information) for better decision support by policy-makers. Consequently, geospatial information offers integrated information, often through maps across various sectors which can be presented to decision-makers for strategic decision-making.
	Experts discuss use of GIS for sustainable development Addis Ababa, March 22, 2011: The second General Congress of the Geographic Information Society of Ethiopia (GISSE) opened today in Addis Ababa, bringing together 300 participants including policymakers, geoscientists, educators, researchers, experts and practitioners from various institutions in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing in Ethiopia.
	8th Conference of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE 2010) opens with the theme “Earth Observation for Africa's Development Agenda” ECA Press Release No. 76/2010 Addis Ababa, 25 October 2010 (ECA) -The 8th African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment Conference opened at UN-ECA in Addis Ababa gathering distinguished geoscientists, educators, researchers, decision makers, practitioners and allied service providers from over 100 countries endorsing the truly international character of the AARSE Conference.
	UN-SPIDER Regional Workshop: Building upon Regional Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management and Emergency Response for Africa Addis Ababa, 13 July 2010 (ECA) - UN-SPIDER, ECA and SWF on Friday concluded the regional workshop entitled: Building upon Regional Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management and Emergency Response for Africa. The workshop gathered participants from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, ranging from high ranking officers from civil protection agencies, space agencies from African nations, regional Centres of Excellence and training centres, research centres from Africa and Europe, mapping and remote-sensing agencies, representatives from ministries of agriculture and environment, as well as representatives of private agencies that commercialise space imagery, products and services.
	Experts mull Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management and Emergency Response in Africa ECA Press Release No. 54/2010 In its resolution 61/110 of 14 December 2006 the United Nations General Assembly established the “United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response – UN-SPIDER”, as a UN programme to provide universal access to all countries and international and regional organizations to any type of space-based information and services relevant to disaster management.
	Regional Support Offices Signing The Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have signed a cooperation agreement during the UN-SPIDER Regional Workshop – Building Upon Regional Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management and Emergency Response for Africa in Addis Ababa this Thursday, 8 July 2010. This makes RCMRD the ninth member of the network of Regional Support Offices which support the implementation of the UN-SPIDER programme by contributing with their expertise and with their regional standing.
	Building the African Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure for Africa (ARSDI) Within its programme of Harnessing Information for Development, ECA has undertaken major actions to strengthen the capacity of member States to set up institutional arrangements and implement national policies and programmes that reinforce the linkages within the nexus of food security, population, economy, environment and human settlements. This strategy places emphasis on the building of an African Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure for Africa (ARSDI) linked with the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans. This will involve negotiating coordination, interoperability and data sharing arrangements with partners, including nodes at national levels, which ECA and partners will assist in developing.
	Metadata Clearinghouse Systems A very important component of spatial data infrastructure is the clearinghouse system that enables users to search metadata of available data sets. As part of the work in developing Spatial Data Infrastructures at national and regional level, ECA maintains a clearinghouse system. One of the objectives of maintaining the clearinghouse system is to provide a facility for member States to publish the metadata of their available data holdings, so that decision makers can discover and use accurate data sourced from their original producers. The five Metadata nodes contain as per end of December 2008 more than 10,000 geospatial metadata records.
	Agriculture Monitoring Today, Africa faces major pressing issues: climate change impact, water scarcity, energy shortage, environmental stresses and food crisis, which affect citizens, business and the community at large. Efforts were made by African countries to work out strategies and policies coordinated in the fields of the environment and the sustainable development. A particular importance is attached to food security, management of resource water, combat against endemics diseases, ecosystems conservation and biodiversity, sustainable energy development, etc.
	Spatially-enabled Database System for security operations Emphasis on security planning for UN personnel and facilities has increased since the killing of UN personnel in Iraq in August 2003, adopting military applications where appropriate. Such security plans require the mapping of UN facilities and residences of staff, detailing assembly points and possible evacuation routes in the event of emergencies. In collaboration with the Security and Safety Section, the Geoinformation Systems Section is currently developing a spatially enabled database system for security applications in Addis Ababa and elsewhere in Ethiopia.
	Geodatabases for the Programme of Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) ECA has developed numerous information and knowledge resources, applications and services to improve availability and use of information for development at the national, regional and sub-regional levels. In line with ECA's position to support regional priorities defined by the AU and the NEPAD, the Division's Geoinformation Systems Section is building regional geospatial databases to support regional initiatives.
	Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Geoinformation technology offers a database system to organize, store and display data in harmonized format to facilitate data sharing among various agencies within a country, in order to monitor social development. An MDG Mapping tool is being developed to enable at-a-glance visualization of the status of countries with regards to meeting the MDG targets.
	Public-Private-Partnership Projects Database It aims at developing a comprehensive database that will enable decision makers and potential investors to determine priority PPP (Public Private Partnership) infrastructure projects with a particular emphasis on transport infrastructure in Africa. This database contains information about the types of projects, their locations, implementation, status, availability of funding, project owner/sponsor, manager, and potential beneficiaries. Fifty-six Railways and thirty-three Electricity PPP-related projects data were recorded and processed for the whole continent. The data were integrated in a geospatial database and a web-based application is being developed to allow users to identify where existing and potential PPP projects are located and to get detailed information with a click of a mouse on any of the projects. This activity was undertaken in partnership with the Infrastructure and Natural Resources Development Section of NEPAD and the Regional Integration Division (NRID) at ECA.
	Second Administrative Level Boundaries ECA has been developing the African component of the Second Level Administrative Boundaries (SALB) geodatabase. Administrative limits data was recorded in nine countries bringing the number of countries with maps fully validated to 17, and a further eight countries awaiting final validation by the national mapping agencies.
	Fundamental Datasets A major problem that Africa faces is that many countries do not have the information resources needed for economic and development planning. For coherent planning, it is necessary to develop a well-structured and comprehensive data foundation that would be consistent, comparable and compatible at the local, national, regional, and global levels. Quick reviews of the African terrain reveal that the geoinformation components of this development data foundation are generally not available, and where they exist are grossly outdated and uncoordinated. To plan remedial activities, it is necessary to identify and reconcile the common and key sets of information for development across the continent. While the thematic data needed by various development sectors may vary, it has been accepted that these key or fundamental datasets must be provided in the context of spatial data infrastructures for the community of users to base their sectoral data products on. However, there is no agreement on what should be included in these fundamental datasets. There is even no consensus on what is meant by the term "fundamental datasets."